A former oil worker whose life fell apart after trying heroin for the first time aged 47 has been jailed for allowing his home to be used to stash £56,000 of Class A drugs.
John Pow’s “extremely comfortable” world crumbled a decade ago when his dad died and he turned to drugs to “numb the pain”, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
The court heard how organised crime gangs took advantage of the 57-year-old grandad’s age and background and used him to deliver and stash large quantities of drugs.
Police received intelligence that Pow was involved in drug dealing and pulled him over in his car on Eday Drive in Aberdeen on June 18.
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson said when officers searched the home he shares with his elderly mum in Taransay Road they discovered quantities of heroin with a combined total weight of more than a kilogram and a maximum street value of £56,000.
Polythene bags, scales, a notepad of weights and sums of money were also found, along with £4,730 in cash.
Pow, a prisoner of HMP Grampian, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin on June 18.
An ‘extremely comfortable’ life ruined by heroin
Defence agent Iain Jane said his client had a previous conviction for a similar offence, as well as two minor road traffic convictions, but said he’d had a clean record until the age of 47 – when he first tried heroin.
He said: “He had been involved in the oil industry through most of his adult life. His dad previously worked in oil.”
Mr Jane said Pow, who has several qualifications including an NHD in mechanical engineering, worked for the same oil company for 20 years, travelling the world and leading an “extremely comfortable” life.
But his “world fell apart” in late 2009 and early 2010 when his father died while working in Dubai, just before he planned to retire.
Pow took his father’s death “particularly badly” and he began “drinking every single day and drinking to excess” when onshore.
His marriage also fell apart during this period.
Mr Jane added: “Someone offered him heroin and described it as something to improve his mood and numb the pain.
“Unlike alcohol, where he was able to use it for a few days and then stop, he quickly became addicted, burned through all the savings he had, and property he had.
“He ends up without a home, living out of his car, which resulted in the two road traffic convictions.
“He is in such a financial position that he is seen as vulnerable by those supplying him.”
Those higher up the chain believed Pow would “fly under the radar of police operations because of his age and background” and utilised him in the supply of drugs, but he was caught and jailed.
While in prison he got free of drugs and, on his release, contacted his mum and “put that lifestyle behind him”, acting as her full-time carer, Mr Jane said.
‘There are other ways to deal with it than submitting to the pressure’
Mr Jane said: “Unfortunately, in early 2021 those who were described as an organised crime group discovered where he was residing and targeted him.”
The Taransay Road area is not known as somewhere blighted by drugs, and so was seen as the ideal location for a “stash house,” he said.
Mr Jane continued: “Because of the drugs taken off him previously by police, he had a debt requiring to be paid.”
When he said he was not interested and resisted, the group’s threats escalated.
Mr Jane said: “He was told that if he didn’t co-operate, the position was he’d come home one day and find his mum was no longer living.”
As a result, he allowed his home to be used to store drugs for someone else to collect, and on the date in question Pow was also making a delivery for the group.
He added: “This was sold to him as a one-off and his debt would be repaid.”
‘An intelligent man’
Sheriff Philip Mann said Pow was “clearly an intelligent man”, adding: “I don’t understand why you allowed yourself to be preyed upon as you apparently have been.
“It’s an unfortunate aspect of drug dealing, but even though you’re preyed upon and perhaps coerced and threatened, you still have free will.
“There are other ways to deal with it than submitting to the pressure.
“There’s an active police force in this country you could have enlisted the aid of in order to get yourself out of the mess you found yourself in.”
He ordered Pow to be jailed for 40 months.
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